Luanda - Climate change, consumption of fish caught illegally, overfishing and plastic disposal in seas are some of the practices that cause changes in the oceans and compromise the survival of marine species.
Oceans can be defined as immense bodies of saltwater that occupy the depressions in the surface of the earth's crust on our planet. With a coverage of 70 percent of the planet they are fundamental to human life.
The United Nations has declared 2022 as the "International Year of Artisanal Fisheries and Aquaculture," focusing the worldwide attention on the role of small-scale fishermen and fish traders.
The World Oceans Day, June 8, celebrates the essential role of the oceans as climate regulators, oxygen providers, key players in the water cycle, sources of food and energy resources, and habitats of a biodiversity far greater than that on land.
For Angola, the ocean is inscribed in the culinary culture, providing a significant part of the country's animal protein consumption and a source of employment from artisanal to industrial fishing, oil and mining, tourism, and even telecommunications.
Based on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Angola recently approved the National Climate Change Strategy to reduce the impacts, with emphasis on the creation of the first marine conservation area in south-western Namibe Province, the director of the National Institute of Biodiversity and Conservation (INBC), Albertina Nzunzi, said. She underlined that at least 50 percent of it has already been executed.
Ms Nzunzi explained that the project of the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Environment aims to optimize the participatory governance in marine conservation in Angola and create the first marine protected area in the country, adjacent to the animals conservation Iona Park.
The area was chosen because of the spectacular geography of the southern Cunene River basin, with its dunes extending to the sea, the Tiger Bay, the diversity of avifauna (bird species of a particular region), such as white pelicans flamingos, and the red-billed gulls, and the more discrete marine fauna, such as the Atlantic humpback dolphin, blue whale, humpback whale, dolphin, olive ridley sea turtle, and the reef-breasted hammerhead shark.
The INBC director said the site is of great biological and ecological importance and has a potential for ecotourism, since the project focuses on the optimization of artisanal fishing of the province of Luanda, the development of mariculture in the central and southern provinces of the country and support community management of marine resources in Namibe Province.
In 2018, the Angolan government decree number 252/18 contained a red list of vulnerable species out of one hundred and fifty.
If climate change does not get a drastic and rapid response, the greenhouse gases that heat the oceans and consume oxygen, plus the destruction of habitats, overfishing and coastal pollution will wipe out marine life.
Scientific studies show that if global warming persists unchanged, marine ecosystems across the planet are likely to suffer massive extinctions similar in size and severity to that of the late Permian, known as the Great Killing, which occurred 250 million years ago and caused the disappearance of more than two-thirds of marine animals.
The global challenges are aimed at finding knowledge and solutions to current climate problems and their side effects on marine health and the need to assess the impacts of these phenomena, especially on the sea.
Along Angola's 1650 km of coastline there are multiple unique habitats with their associated fauna. These are the basins of larger rivers, such as the Congo River and Cunene River which are trans-border ecosystems, mangroves, sandy beaches, and bays such as those of Cabinda, Mussulo island in Luanda and Lobito in Benguela Province.
More than 45 percent of jobs in Angola are somehow related to the marine environment. The ocean also absorbs part of the greenhouse gases emitted and stabilizes environmental temperatures, reducing the immediate impacts of climate change, thus making the conservation of marine ecosystems a matter of paramount importance.
The World Oceans Day is marked with the aim of remembering their importance for the balance of life on planet Earth. In this ambit, several activities are to be carried out, with emphasis on awareness campaigns about the dangers oceans currently face.
The date has been celebrated since 1992, however the United Nations only made the commemoration official in 2008.
